<\/a>I want to go back a bit, to some of the earlier practices in preparation for the Gorging Dragons crews heading to Italy for the Club Crew World Dragon Boat Championships, and talk a bit about how I realized that I had a lot more to learn as I go from being a “drummer” to a “DRUMMER” in a world class boat.<\/p>\n

The Gorge Super Sprints was the very first race event with the Gorging Dragons Senior C Women’s Crew, out of the VI Paddling Club<\/a>, with me as a “green” or “newbie” drummer.\u00a0 These were held here in our own Gorge Waterway, put on by the Fairway Gorge Paddling Club<\/a>.\u00a0 These Super Sprints were straight up the course 250 meter races.\u00a0 We’d go from the start to the finish and, in my mind, be the first to cross that finish line too!<\/p>\n

Our coach, Tom Arnold, did remind us over and over again, that this was NOT a goal race, but a “prep” race.\u00a0 We were supposed to ignore distractions and practice our ability to “race our race”.\u00a0 The rate of the stroke needed to be different from that of a 500 metre race.\u00a0 But, we did the same start, the middle of the race course was shorter and then the finish calls were the same as what we’d been practicing.\u00a0 Easy, right?<\/p>\n

Apparently, not for me.\u00a0 I missed calling at the most appropriate time for our “finish” to start.\u00a0 The finish is a series of calls\/cues and strokes that make the boat go faster for the last portion of the race.\u00a0 In our coaches minds, it’s not that we go faster, it may be that the other crews are petering out, but the ultimate goal is to be first, right?<\/p>\n

NO! For these races, the ultimate goal was to answer the question, “Did you do everything you could to make that boat do what it needed to do?<\/i>”\u00a0 “Did you do your absolute best?<\/i>”\u00a0 If you answered “yes<\/i>” , then the boat was going the fastest it could go and no matter when you crossed, you did what you could.\u00a0 And, if you answered “no<\/i>” to either question, then you needed to go through that race and figure out how you could do better in the next one, for your crew and yourself.<\/p>\n

I missed a couple of really important calls and sometimes I could “feel” the boat (a previous blog post talked about that “feel”) doing some funny stuff, but was unsure what to call to help the crew fix it.\u00a0 That didn’t help.\u00a0 In my mind, I had a few things I needed to work on and a few questions to ask the coaches about before I could do “my best” to help the crew.<\/p>\n

However, probably the worst mistake I made (along with our stern), was when we left the dock way too early.\u00a0 We were out there roaming around the start line, twiddling our thumbs (not really, but close!).\u00a0 I knew something wasn’t right.\u00a0 Even with my “newbie” drumming skills I knew we didn’t want to be at the start line first (first at the finish, yes, but not the start line).\u00a0 So, what happened?<\/p>\n

Apparently, as we were let go by the dock crew, we should have waited at the next dock for our competitors to start their movement to the start line too.\u00a0 In that way, all the boats in a race proceed together towards the start line and no one gets any advantage (perceived or otherwise) by having a bit more time to warm up.<\/p>\n

We also lined up at the start line in an odd manner and didn’t take advantage of where the current was its fastest (who doesn’t want help with making that boat go faster?).\u00a0 So we started our race and, even though I had most of the finish calls and some of the in between calls done (and better too!), we didn’t finish first.<\/p>\n

We were sternly spoken to by the water\/dock crew and the head of the Safety crew, but the most gruelling “talk” was from our coach.\u00a0 He pointed out that our #1 job was to keep the crew safe!\u00a0 If it had been scorching hot out (which it wasn’t, but in Italy it would be!), they would’ve been exposed to too much heat.\u00a0 We weren’t lined up properly so we actually took a diagonal approach through the race and we went farther than the other crews!\u00a0 I called this serious chat my “spanking” and vowed to always think of the crew, to always be aware of when the other boats in our heat were heading away from the dock AND to be more aware of the line we took during any race.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, our coach’s chat (or spanking) was appropriate.\u00a0 He gave us plenty to think about, told us what we did wrong and asked us how we could correct our mistakes.\u00a0 He didn’t belittle us or make us feel like losers, but opened my eyes to how serious even a ‘little’ mistake can be.<\/p>\n

I’m happy to say, that one spanking proved to be all I needed.\u00a0 Sure, I’m being given tips and pointers all the time, after every practice and every race, but nothing as serious or potential crew damaging as that one after the Super Sprints.<\/p>\n

After those Super Sprints and my “spanking”, I went home and sat on my deck and went over and over those events\/races in my head.\u00a0 I even made some notes as to how I was going to improve.\u00a0 Then I opened a bottle of wine and licked my wounds.<\/p>\n

I was back on the water for practice the very next day and I’m proud to say that I haven’t made any such insurmountable mistakes since.\u00a0 Using your mistakes as stepping stones and knowing you can and will improve is key to preparing for world class racing.<\/p>\n

Paddles up!<\/p>\n

<\/a>Loreli Urquhart, owner of Alter Ego Fitness Experience, is a BCRPA Certified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor.\u00a0 She\u2019s also fully trained and certified with Can Fit Pro as a Personal Training Specialist.\u00a0 Loreli i<\/strong>s passionate about health and fitness and loves to share her enthusiasm with others! This is one of the many ways that Alter Ego sets itself apart from other boot camps.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to go back a bit, to some of the earlier practices in preparation for the Gorging Dragons crews heading to Italy for the Club Crew World Dragon Boat Championships, and talk a bit about how I realized that I had a lot more to learn as I go from being a “drummer” to… Continue reading In A Dragon Boat, Even A “Small” Mistake Can Be Serious!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion-pieces","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3218"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3227,"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions\/3227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteregofitness.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}